A blog dedicated to the discussion of topics relating to the history of Sandusky and Erie County, Ohio; inspired by the collections of the Sandusky Library Archives Research Center and Follett House Museum. A service of the Sandusky Library.

Friday, February 01, 2013

Schnaitter-Smith Families on Perry Street

A recent donation of materials to the Sandusky Library Archives Research Center helps to bring family histories to life. Two houses on Perry Street tell
the story of the Schnaitter and Smith families, whose lives played out on their
front porches during the early 1900s. Although most of the photographs from the
Howard collection were unlabeled, we became history detectives to discover more
about the pictured families.

Merchant tailor Frank Schnaitter married Christina. Their
five children were Antoinette (Nettie), Frank (1880-1913), Edward (see previousblog entry), Gertrude, and Florence. The children were raised in a beautiful Victorian
house at 812 Perry Street.

The Schnaitter home prior to 1920

Bicycles were popular at the turn of the century when Nettie
Schnaitter, at around age 20, began spending time with Freeland Smith. She
enjoyed riding with Freeland and his sister, Lottie.

Freeland Smith and Nettie Schnaitter. The two boys could be her brothers Edward and Frank. March 28, 1897.

Left to right: An unidentified woman, Lottie, and Nettie pose with their bicycles in front of Nettie’s house. The two boys talking on the porch could be Nettie’s brothers Edward and Frank. March 31, 1897.

Freeland Smith worked as a bookkeeper at Donahue Hardware at
735 Water Street, and he and Nettie Schnaitter were married around 1903. Nettie
soon gave birth to Elizabeth “Betty” Smith, James “Bud” Smith, and Frank “Pink”
Smith.

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In 1910, a house was built at 808 Perry Street, beside
Nettie’s childhood home where her parents and siblings were still living. Soon
after, Freeland opened Smith Hardware, which he and Adam Smith later managed. The
Smiths lived with the Schnaitter family for several years, and Nettie’s
daughters, Margaret “Polly” Smith and Patricia Gertrude Smith, were born in
1911 and 1917, respectively.

By 1915, Freeland and Nettie’s family had moved into the house at 808
Perry Street . That same year, the address numbering system changed, so
812 became 810, and 808 became 806 Perry Street.

Nettie’s children spent happy times playing on the front
porches of both houses.

Elizabeth and James Smith, Seymore Bloker, Roy Seebeck, and Frank and Margaret Smith pose on the porch of 808 Perry Street.

Margaret Smith plays with a doll and buggy on her front porch of 808 Perry Street. February 15, 1914.

Even though Nettie was about 7 and 19 years older than her
younger sisters, they seemed to be close. Many photographs show Nettie’s
children spending time with their next-door neighbors, Aunts Gertrude and
Florence Schnaitter.

Left to right: Gertrude and Florence Schnaitter stand beside Nettie Smith. Frank and Margaret Smith, holding a doll, stand in front. All are bundled in winter clothes. The photo is probably dated around 1915.

Around 1920, the front half of the house at 810 Perry was
moved to 5th Street.

House at 810 Perry Street after the front was moved.

Gertrude married A. R. Warner and moved to Deerfield, IL,
while Florence married Claude Miller. Then the elder Frank Schnaitter died in
an ice boating accident in 1928. By 1930, Florence and Claude were living alone
at the 810 Perry Street house.

In 1939, Freeland was working as the vice president of Smith
Hardware. By 1940, Florence and Claude had moved to Cleveland, and Claude’s
brother, Edmund Miller, was renting the 810 Perry Street house for his family. The
next year, Freeland, Nettie, and their three youngest children, now adults, had
moved back into the old Schnaitter home at 810 Perry Street.

Freeland passed away in 1949 and is buried in Oakland
Cemetery. Nettie lived in the 810 Perry Street house until her death in 1967.

Elizabeth married Harold Stockdale, and their family settled
in Sandusky. She died before her mother, in 1959.James
Smith married, settled his family in Sandusky, and worked as chief engineer at
Union Chain. He passed away in 1984.

Frank Smith went on to study art. He supervised art
instruction in the Sandusky school system and founded the Sandusky Cultural
Center. He died in 1999. Margaret Smith worked as a dental hygienist, spent
several winters helping Florence and Claude with the charter dishing business,
and was active in several local organizations. Patricia Smith married Dean Howard and settled
in Peoria, Illinois. Both Margaret and Patricia passed away in 2009.

3 comments:

To where on Fifth Street was the front half of the house moved? I grew up at 1126 Fifth, and I would guess that the front half of the 804 Perry St house was moved to a site that is one or two houses east of Sycamore Line, on the north side of Fifth St. For many years,the entry walk to the house on Fifth Street was flanked by two very large stone lions, which I believe now grace the entry to Sandusky Yacht Club.

What an interesting article. How generous of those families to donate their collective history in photographs. For all of us with a Sandusky past, their story is our story. Thank you so much for your generosity and for such a lovely story. Where can you find out if a house number changed and what it may have changed to?